A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill BrysonBlack Swan £8.99 pp687

Bryson's decision to write a book that would explain everything that happened between the Big Bang birth of the universe and the rise of civilisation was greeted with some scepticism before its hardback publication. Such ambition tends to make scientists and critics uneasy, if not to say envious.

It is pleasing, therefore, to note that those doubters were wrong - for A Short History has already become a major literary success, selling more than 400,000 copies in Britain and garnering two key shortlistings in the last few weeks: one for the Samuel Johnson prize for non-fiction and another for the Aventis prize for science books. Bryson's brainchild looks set to make a considerable impact, in short.

And by and large, this success seems justified. Bryson is at pains, at all times, to elucidate, to avoid detail, and to demystify rather than present his protagonists as modern shamans, as many writers - usually scientists themselves - try to do. This is 'science for fun' presented on a grand, effortlessly stylish scale.

Thus our oscillating universe is depicted as being like a cosmic 'bladder on an oxygen machine'; a particularly hyperactive astronomer is described as swinging his telescope about 'like a tailgunner in a dogfight'; while we learn the first diving helmet was designed in 1823 by the Englishman Charles Deane, not for diving but for fire-fighting, though it proved to be unpopular with users because of its tendency to cook their heads.

It is all hugely enjoyable stuff, a scientific traveller's tale, written on a vast scale. It may not change our lives, of course, but it should keep us amused and engrossed.